My credit union bought a new GM car today

We looked at and test drove a HHR when we bought the Equinox but they are just too blasted small for me, not enough leg or shoulder room on the driver’s side.

I realize folks are different and I am a big guy. We travel quite a bit and I was too cramped up to drive an HHR comfortably.

If I have to go somewhere crammed into a car like a sardine in a can I would rather stay at home or pump a little more gas. It’s no fun going anywhere when you get there feeling miserable and worse by the time you get back home.

I long ago decided that, to me, gas mileage isn't the most important thing about a vehicle. I value comfort, safety, utility, and convenience as much or more than fuel economy.

But, I will admit those HHR's are cute and my DW really wanted one, now if only they had been a little bigger.....?

What year? What engine size?
I drove a 2007 with a 2.2L, it was anemic compared to my PT with a 2.4L.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

We have an 06 HHR with the base engine and AT...2.2 is the base motor, right?

I certainly don't feel underpowered in our HHR. Maybe it is my past experiences of driving the vehicles we own. I have a 95 S-10 that I don't think I have ever had much over 70 MPH in the 3 years I have owned it.

I'm not looking for power or speed, just comfortable fuel economy.

I feel like the HHR is more than adequately powered, has plenty of zip if you need it. Anemic is certainly not a word I would use in describing a HHR.

Clove

Glad to hear the US Government is now in the warranty repair business. What's next? Baby needs new shoes, maybe they will take care of that as well...oh wait, they do.

2009 LS and LT have a 155-hp 2.2-liter 4-cylinder engine, which is an increase of 6 hp over 2008 models.

I was surprised at the responsiveness when accelerating at 65 mph.

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life's a holiday

People hear what they want to hear, and believe what they want to believe.

GM and Chrysler are funding the warranty costs from every vehicle sold.

I believe this is refered to in the industry as "hold back money".

So every GM and Chrysler car that is sold, GM and Chrysler are paying into the warranty fund to cover the costs.

I have heard that the "hold back money" is about $600 per vehicle. From what I understand, this money used to go to the dealer, to cover warranty work. If not used, this became extra profit for the dealer. Under the new plan, this money goes to the government, set aside in a special fund for warranty work.

Because GM cars are so well built these days, I doubt the government will lose a dime over this. Our HHR, my Dad's Impala, and my neighbor's GMC truck never had any warranty work done. Of course, there are some cars that will need some sort of work from time to time. This is true for every brand and name plate, domestic and import.

The only catch will be the 07, 08 and 09's that have the greatest and best warranty on the market today. GM offers 5 year/100,000 mile warranties on those model years as well as the current new model. This warranty is unmatched on the market today, to my knowledge. These cars could be a liability to the government if there is not contractual obligations from GM already. Since the hold back money was aleady paid to the dealer, I really doubt that the government will be responsible for any warranty work prior to a certain date of manufacture. This means that GM will probably have to cover those cars on their own.

Don't forget that the 06 cars with 36 month/36,000 mile waranty will be rolling off the list that the government potentially could be on the hook for. With the average miles a family puts on a car in the US today, which happens to be 20,000 miles, I doubt there are many 06 cars out there that still have less than 36,000 miles. If mileage doesn't expire the warranty, the life of 36 months certainly will soon enough.

As well, thousands upon thousands of GM vehicles come out of warranty each day. This is due to overage on the mileage, scrappage rates from totals and wrecks, car thefts, acts of God like floods, tornados and storms, fires, etc. I personally know of an 08 Impala that was totaled by a flood, and the car only had 11,000 miles.

Obama's team isn't stupid. They will make sure that warranty or hold back money is set aside in the event of a reorganization.

Don't miss the forest for the trees. The warranty plan that Obama put forth is meant to reassure potential customers that GM will have a warranty in effect, and the purchase of a new GM car is safe to make.

Clove

I was making the comparison the my PT. It seemed to have a little more pep then the HHR with the 2.2L. Not exactly comparing race cars here, obviously driving a PT I wasn't looking for power or speed.
Your mileage does sound extremely good, what was the advertised fuel mileage? I don't think it was anywhere near 36mpg.

__________________
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

The window sticker said 30 MPG for interstate driving. Of course, around town is much less.

The HHR has an on board MPG calculator, which has been an eye opener for me.

Alot has to do with how you drive the car, as you already know. My wife drives like Danica Patrick, and never gets much over 28 MPG on her trip to work. This is a 28 mile trip, with mostly interstate and some city driving. It is funny that I get over 32...most often 33 MPG...and sometimes 34 MPG when I make the same, exact trip.

My wife likes to accelerate like 'green flag racing'. Sometimes, I wonder if her only goal in life is to let the car idle in a drive-thru every day. Sometimes I think she gets a thrill hitting 60 MPH between stop lights, and leaving her foot on the gas pedal until the very last second. She also loves to leave either the defrost or AC on for an entire trip, even if it isn't needed. (Lots and lots of tongue-in-cheek here.)

On longer trips, it is easy to get 36 MPG, on the interstate, and often more.

It is all about how you drive them.

Clove

Is this actual calculations miles divided by fuel or is it off the calculator?

__________________
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

I have calculated it both ways. The calculator is very, very accurate...more accurate than I can calculate with gallons pumped.

I have rented a few cars in the past, which seem to have different style calculators. Those on Chrysler cars and vans that I rented several years ago would give you the instant MPG. So, if you are accelerating hard in first gear, it will show your MPG at 7.9, for instance. Then 10 seconds later, when the car is at 65 MPH, it will show the instant MPG at 25, for example. Then travel down a big hill without using the accelerator, and it will show an instant MPG at 99.9 MPG. These calculators are constantly changing.

The HHR has a calculator that averages the entire trip or month's worth of driving until it is reset again. Sometimes, I go an entire week without driving the HHR. My wife hasn't reset it, and it continues to calculate the next trip into it. She can really drag down the average with her driving style! I will often reset the mileage as soon as I start the car, just to see how well we are doing. We went on a short vacation last year, so I reset the calculator the moment we started the car. Even with a very frustrating time getting lost, and my fast driving during that time, we still got 33.4. This included alot of in town driving as well. I figured the fuel usage against the miles, and came up with nearly the same figure, even though my figures were a bit higher.

I find that it is nearly impossible to figure fuel usage and miles because you never know exactly how much is or was in the tank. I think the only real way to know exactly would be to use metric beakers to measure your input gas, and then to drain your tank after you came home to measure how much exactly was left.

One other thing that I have noticed about folks that average their mileage is that they often only figure long trips. These are the trips where they are burning full tanks of gas, with the only stopping is to refuel on the interstate. Often, I find folks bragging about "my car got XX miles per gallon on the trip". Often, they only figure one leg of a 12 hour interstate trip, and not the mileage they got around town or while sight-seeing.

All in all, the HHR calculator for MPG is very, very accurate.

Clove

I wanted to add that the Chevy HHR is one of the cars that actually gets better mileage in real life than what the window sticker states.

Hard to believe, but true. For Federal advertising guidelines, as I understand it, they are not allowed to advertise this fact.

Clove

Clovis,
Thanks for all of the info. The HHR had just come out when we bought our PT. I followed one to see what it was and then went to the dealer to see one in person. As I said I've gone and driven one to see if there was anything to gain over the PT. In 3 years we've put just under 20k mi. on the PT so it's not like we drive much. The seating area was about the same. The cargo area of the HHR was a little larger. The PT gets 27-28 mpg on a trip and of course worse around town. I have heard great fuel mileage reports about the HHR and many Chevy and GM models.

__________________
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost